Ragnarok
by Steph Marks
Summary: It's been 6 months since 'The Incident' and 3 months since The Lizard attacked. Tony has taken a sudden interest in Spiderman since his debut performance atop Oscorp's main building. But when Thor returns from Asgard warning them of the coming apocalypse, it's more than just interest that propels the team to try and recruit this new hero. And where oh where has the Captain gone?
1. Prologue

**A/N:** **Hey guys! This is my first Avengers fic and I came up with it while I was on holidays so it probably needs a little fine tuning. This is the prologue and when I say prologue it's really just to fill in some of the gaps that'll come up later on. It won't really make much sense until later. I shall endeavour to have the first chapter up today which I have already started writing.**

**Just so you guys know, 'Ragnarok' was the apocalypse in Norse mythology. I'm attempting to follow the mythology and the movies as closely as I can while I write this so if it's a little confusing let me know and I'll see what I can do about straightening things out.**

**Thanks for reading! Enjoy!**

**EDIT: This chapter has just gotten beta-ed by slipsandfalls so I reposted it. Thanks babe!**

**Ragnarok**

**Prologue**

Steve sat at the bar, his hand wrapped around a shot glass filled with a foul tasting amber liquid that Stark had picked out for them. Howard had caught him sitting silently in a corner of the camp they were currently stationed at. He'd told him to 'quit moping about and come for a walk'. The walk had turned into lunch and lunch had turned into drinks and here they were.

"You know what Cap?" Stark slurred from his spot next to him. He'd had more than a few too many but kept the drinks coming. Steve had told him that alcohol had no effect on him and Stark suggested they put that theory to the test. Of course, Steve could drink him under the table but he was enjoying himself too much to tell him that. "You're the closest thing I've ever had to a friend."

"Really?" Steve asked, genuinely shocked at the statement.

"Yeah, course you are! We've seen each other more than once without you telling me to get nicked."

Steve chuckled and said "But why? I mean you're rich, you're smart-"

"That! Right there!" Stark interrupted, pointing a finger in the Captain's face. "Smart. People fear intelligence. That's why." Howard threw back the shot and Steve did the same.

"Stark, I don't understand what you're saying half the time," Steve didn't say 'and the other half is about women and sex'.

"Exactly! And you're still here! That's why you're my friend." Howard gave a drunken smile and raised his newly filled glass. "To best and only friends!"

"To best and only friends," Steve mimicked.

Howard looked at him hard, leaning in and squinting. "You're not even a little drunk, are you?" Steve laughed, openly and fully. "Oh well!" Stark threw back the shot and Steve did the same. Howard toppled backwards off the stool and Steve laughed again. _To best and only friends_, he thought, _to best and only friends._

**~AVENGERS~**

Tony sat by the window of his house staring out into the deserted streets through a curtain of rain. His dad was out which meant that it was his job to look after the house. It was his birthday and dad had promised he'd be home. He promised. Tony was turning ten today. He'd told his mum he didn't want a party because he wanted to spend the day with dad. Tony knew exactly where he was. He was at the lab talking to the Captain. Ever since he'd found him, he spent all of his spare time with him. Talking to him, trying to find a way to bring him back, telling him about a woman called Peggy. Tony had been jealous at first but then his dad told him about the Captain. Captain America, a superhero, dads only friend. Besides Tony, of course. And that made it okay because his dad had a friend. Tony knew that his dad wasn't good at making friends but when he did make them, he kept them.

But this was Tony's day with his dad and he wasn't going to share it. Tony refocused his eyes on the street. A black car had pulled up outside. Tony's heart leapt. He came! He remembered! Tony ran down the stairs through the house to the front door.

"Dad!" he called, pushing past his mother and through the door. But his father wasn't standing there. It was a man in a green uniform. He looked sadly down at the small boy. Tony looked up at his mother. She had her hand to her mouth and tears were falling down her face. He looked back at the tall man. "Where's my dad?" he asked, feeling the tears falling down his own cheeks now. The man gave a tight-lipped smile.

"Sorry kiddo."

**~AVENGERS~**

A scream tore from the god's throat. Pain scorched across his skin like fire across a grassy field. He opened his eyes to see the serpent above him. He whimpered and pleaded. He prayed to his father to make it stop. The acid pooled on the edge of its fang once more. He cried louder still, struggling against his bindings. He felt the ropes cut further into his skin and fresh blood dripping down his fingertips. He felt the hard stone beneath his back rip and tear at his skin but still he could not move. The trickster remained bound as he watched the drop begin to fall in horror. It fell slowly, landing on his skin with a splash. He cried out through his hoarse throat, tasting the flecks of blood on his tongue. The acid burned through his face, seeming as a knife slowly being pushed deeper into his flesh. He felt the last strands of intact flesh tear across his cheek. He howled, cursing the gods and giants alike. Then the pain was gone. Loki enjoyed the brief moment tranquillity. There was no pain. He counted to five and opened his eyes. Above him, the acid had pooled again on tip of the fang, ready to burn the flesh anew. He steeled himself and, as the acid began to fall, closed his eyes as it all began again.

**A/N:** **Hello again! These little flashbacky things are important for later so I'm sorry that not much happens in this but it is important. I'll have the next chapter up today at some point. Thanks again for reading! Bye!**


	2. Chapter 1: How to Get Noticed

**A/N: ****Hey guys! Here's the first proper chapter of this little fic. Have fun, enjoy and let me know what you think! I'm going to make an effort to reply to every review this gets so please, give me an honest opinion. Here you go!**

**Rangnarok**

**Chapter 1: ****How to Get Noticed**

It's been three months. Things had started to quiet down but Peter was sure it wouldn't last. It never did after all. Doctor Connors was being held in some facility run by some company Peter had never heard of and he was cured. They all were. Everyone that The Lizard had infected had been cured when Peter used the Gonali device to disperse the serum. The investigation into Oscorp following the attack was shoved aside by their army of money waving lawyers and now no one will go within ten miles of the case. It was still a major topic for discussion but Peter didn't care. It was over. Connors was in jail, the people cured and he was still an anonymous vigilante. Okay, so being hunted by the police every time he tried to help kind of sucked but at least he was helping. And anyway, he knows it wasn't Oscorp's fault. It was his. Gwen would kill him for thinking that but it's true. He gave Connors the formula, he perfected the serum; he made it possible for him to do what he did. The Lizard was his creation, his responsibility, his fault. Gwen hated it when he blamed himself. She said he would have perfected the formula with or without his help.

It was just a matter of time.

She and Peter had gotten back together a month after the funeral, five weeks after the attack. He couldn't leave her, she needed him too much. That was one of the things he liked about her. She didn't need Spiderman, she just needed Peter. After everything that had happened, Peter was glad when things finally fell back into a routine. Breakfast, school, patrol, Gwen's, groceries, home.

Things were finally getting back to normal.

**~AVENGERS~**

"Spiderman…" Tony mused as he watched a video on his tablet. The red and blue clad figure on the screen swung across the alley way by what looked like cables from his wrists. "Interesting…"

"Yeah, I know," Bruce mumbled from the other side of the lab. Since 'the Incident' (which was what everyone called the invasion to make it less terrifying) Bruce, Natasha and Clint had been living in Stark Tower with Tony and Pepper. Natasha and Clint were there to keep him in line and Bruce was there because he realised how much he missed being in a lab and how much he missed talking to someone who spoke 'proper English', meaning Tony. He didn't mind though. It was nice to have someone to share the lab with, someone who understood what was going on. Pepper was still busy 'running the company' as she so often liked to remind him and Thor went back to Asgard with Loki. They hadn't heard from him since the Incident. Much like the Captain. Steve had disappeared shortly after as well. None of the other Avengers had heard from him, no one had seen him (and it was kind of hard for Steve to get around without being noticed nowadays) and he hadn't been to any of his usual haunts. Even SHIELD had no idea where he'd gone. It was worrying to say the least.

"Have you seen this?" Tony asked, flicking a clip of footage off the screen, causing it to materialise as a hologram before him. Tony's eyes watched the figure swing with fascination, keeping themselves fixed to the cable connecting the man to the building. "What I wouldn't give to have a sample of that stuff."

"Of course." Tony turned to look at the physicist. He had his nose buried in a microscope and his mind was clearly on other things.

A smirk pulled at Tony's lips.

"You know Fury wants him to fill in for Thor?"

"W-what?" Bruce's attention was immediately captured. "B-but Thor, he's-"

"Relax, Doc! I was joking! Fabio's spot is safe and sound." Bruce gave a sigh of relief, glaring whole-heatedly at Tony. "But Fury is scouting him though."

"Why?"

"Have you ever heard of The Lizard?"

**~AVENGERS~**

Clint sat, as he always did, on the roof of Stark tower over looking New York. In the six months since the Incident, the city had recovered remarkably well. A majority of the damaged buildings had either been demolished or repaired, the roads repaved and, of course, the alien bodies confiscated. The speed of the removal did nothing to quell the conspiracy theorists. Clint chuckled. _If only they knew. _He looked out toward the sunset. It was already five PM. He should probably head inside soon and make sure the geeks hadn't blown up the-

BOOM!

Clint spun round to see a cloud of smoke rising from the West. He normally wouldn't have thought anything of it - a demolition job or something (God knows there had been plenty of those lately) – but then he saw it. What looked like string flew form the cloud, arching and falling, and a flash of red and blue. He pulled his phone from his pocket while keeping his eyes fixed on the fight and punched in the number for the Tower.

"Jarvis, put me through to the lab."

**~AVENGERS~**

"He showed up out of nowhere four months ago, took down a giant lizard and then back to rounding up robbers and rapists."

"And your point is?" Bruce sighed. Tony had been going on like this for the past half hour. Bruce just wanted him to shut up so he could get back to work.

"How are you not interested?!" Tony all but yelled at the man.

Bruce just didn't get it. It was just some other guy in a mask. It's not like it's anything new. "Tony, you didn't care this much when mutants started popping up everywhere, so why do you care about his guy?"

"Because I-"

"Sir, Agent Barton is on the line," Jarvis interrupted.

Tony sighed dropping the argument. How had it even started anyway? "Put him through Jarvis."

"Stark," Barton called. It was hard to hear him over the rushing of air.

"Barton, how's the weather out there?" Tony joked, leaning back in his chair.

"You still interested in that Spiderman guy?"

Tony almost fell out of his chair. He jumped to his feet, staring intently at the ceiling. "Yeah," he said slowly.

"'Cause I got an eye on him."

That was all the encouragement Tony needed. He jumped out of his seat and ran to the door. "I'd get to the control room if I were you!" Tony called to Bruce his voice echoing down the hall as he called for Jarvis to deploy the Mach 7 suit. Bruce sighed inwardly. Was he ever going to get a peaceful day?

**~AVENGERS~**

Tony was speeding through the sky, shouting at Barton for directions.

"How could you get lost?" he cried over the headset "I told you to look for the explosion!"

"Real helpful, Birdbrain!" Tony snapped round a corner, picking up more speed. _Where is it? Where is it? _But Tony didn't need to find. A figure in red and blue spandex swept across the street in front of him. "Barton, I got him!" Tony took off, heading straight after the figure. He couldn't help but be taken with the grace of his movements. He swung from one building to another with practiced ease that looked almost artful in its precision. Left too late and you could hit the ground, done too soon and you could fall. Tony kicked up the speed again and levelled himself off with him. He was struck by his size. Spiderman was a lot smaller than Tony thought. He had a lithe figure with slight muscle visible through the skin-tight suit. "Hey, kid!" Tony called.

Spiderman's head snapped round. "Shit-!" he stumbled and missed his mark. The web came up short. And Spiderman fell. Tony dove to catch him but he already had another grapple point, swinging safely again. Tony could tell all the guy's senses were fixed on him.

"Close one, kid!" Tony shouted over the roaring wind.

"Dude! You're mother-hugging Iron Man!" he called in reply. Tony chuckled.

"Yep, that's me. Genius, billionaire, superhero. And you are?"

"You don't know who I am?" Tony could almost see the pout through the mask.

"No, I know who _he _is," Tony gesture to the mask and outfit, "but who are you?"

"Nice try!" He laughed.

"Can't blame a guy, can you Spidey?"

"Who you callin' Spidey, Tin Man?" Tony laughed. The kid had a sense of humour at least.

"Hey, kid, why don't you stop so we can talk for a bit?" Spiderman pulled a hand to his chin in a thoughtful gesture.

"Sorry! No can do." He flicked his wrist and the next thing Tony saw was white. He tried to claw the gunk off his eyes but he couldn't get it off. Tony flipped open his helmet.

Spiderman was gone.

**A/N: ****Sorry this wasn't very long and it ahad a lot of talking in it. I'll get some more down in the next chapter. Thanks for reading! **


	3. Chapter 2: The Hunt is Afoot

**A/N: ****Um, hi guys. So you guys just took any hopes I had for this story and BLEW THEM OUT OF THE WATER! WOW THE SUPPORT YOU GUYS HAVE GIVEN THIS THING IS AMAZING! I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU! XD Right, so here's the next chapter. I hope you guys enjoy and that you had a verry merry Christmas! I know I did replying to your reviews! **

**Here you go!**

**Ragnarok**

**Chapter 2: The Hunt is Afoot**

Tony was pacing endlessly up and down the conference room. The team (or what was left of it) had gathered around the table in the centre while Tony thought of a plan of action. He didn't like this. He never liked not having the upper hand. As much as he was idly curious about Spiderman's identity it was now a matter of pride. He had been outsmarted and so had to be even smarter. If he could just figure out who the kid was…

"Hey, Bruce," he asked, turning to the table. "How long until the tests are done on that web stuff?"

"Well, they would be done a lot quicker if you hadn't called us all up here to sit around and watch you brood," he sighed, quietly twirling a pen in his fingers. Tony glared at him and opened his mouth to tell him off when Natasha jumped in.

"Why do you care about this guy so much anyway, Stark?"

"Hey, yeah!" _here we go, _Tony sighed, _lovebird to the rescue. _

"Well, Katniss, you saw him. How was he in a fight?" Tony asked, eyebrow raised.

All eyes turned to Clint. He shifted under their gaze. Being an assassin meant that Clint was unaccustomed to being seen and having all the attention? Well, that was just down right unnerving. He picked his tablet off the table and tapped away at it until he found what he was looking for. He swiped his finger across the screen and a small clip of video footage appeared on the monitor behind Tony. The small assembly turned to watch the shaky video feed. It was clearly attached to Clint somewhere. It showed a recording of the fight between Spiderman and the bombers. Tony watched with a small smile, having already seen the footage and knowing just how good the kid was. Natasha leaned over the table with interest. She made a thoughtful gesture with her hand.

"He's got skill, I'll give him that." The attention turned to her as she spoke. She was not nearly as uncomfortable with it as Clint but that didn't mean she liked it either. "He's been trained. I can see taekwondo, karate, judo," the figure on the screen hefted a pipe above his head and swung it at one of the bombers, bringing it down with incredible force, knocking the man out. "Kendo," she chuckled. "But also some straight out boxing, kick boxing and maybe Tai boxing too."

"So, basically, he can fight. And he's smart," Tony said, summing it up for everyone.

"How do you know that?" Clint asked.

"Well, while you were out stealing from the rich and giving to the poor I met the kid, remember?" Tony picked his own tablet from the table and flicked a series of photographs onto the monitor. The first showed Spiderman mid swing. The second showed a close up of his arm and the third was an even closer shot of his wrist. On which sat a small device. Bruce, who had until this point been sitting in his chair quietly listening to the deliberations, stood and walked over to get a better look.

"What are they?" he asked as he fitted his glasses to the bridge of his nose.

"My best guess is that those," Tony tapped the screen for emphasis. "Is how he's making this web stuff."

"They look homemade."

"My point exactly. If he can make this stuff, he's gotta be pretty smart, right?" Everyone gave begrudging murmurs of agreement. "In that case, we should find him."

"Why?" Clint questioned.

"Oh, come on," Tony sighed in frustration. "You can't tell me Fury's happy about this guy running around without a leash. And I'm sure he'd fit right in to our super-secret boy band!"

The group exchanged knowing glances but nonetheless agreed. They all knew why Tony wanted to find this kid but he was right. Spiderman would make a nice addition to the team. He was fast, strong, good in a fight and clearly intelligent (which is probably all Tony cared about, really). That would make him an incredibly useful asset. But that was where Tony drew the line. He didn't want SHIELD to find out they were tracking Spiderman. Fury had a way of messing these things up and Tony didn't want him to turn Spiderman into another tool to be used at his discretion. They all agreed to leave SHIELD out of the loop on this one.

"So how are we going to find him?" Natasha asked, toying with her tablet as she punched in search after search.

"When I spoke to him he seemed young. I'm gunna say age bracket… seventeen to twenty-five." Tony chuckled. "He called me 'mother-hugging Iron Man'."

Bruce smiled then turned serious. "So with that age bracket we can say he's either in school or recently graduated. We could look at school records and see if anyone fits the profile?"

"Wow, doc, I didn't know you were so good at playing detective." Clint's comment earned a collective laugh but the team were too focused to be entertained for long.

"He must live close by because he reached that explosion within minutes of detonation," Clint said, re-watching the footage on his tablet.

"Okay, so, I'm confining the search to the city limits." Natasha pounded in more searches.

"If he's that intelligent he would have gone to a decent school," Tony chipped in.

"Right, there are around six dozen private schools in the city," she said grimly.

"No," Bruce said from his position in front of the monitor. He was looking at the device on Spiderman's wrist again. "If he went to a private school he'd probably be able to afford better equipment than this. I can see half an analogue radio and pieces of an old doorbell in here."

"There are twenty public schools."

"How many of those are high end?" Tony asked.

"Thirteen."

"Right, but look at the ones with an engineering and science focus because he'd definitely need those to make these," Bruce put in.

"Then we have one." All eyes turned to Natasha. She flicked a picture of a small brick building onto the screen in front of them. "Midtown Science."

**~AVENGERS~**

Peter winced as Gwen hugged him tightly. He pulled his face into a wide smile as she turned back to face him. Gwen didn't need to know that he was hurt. He didn't want her to worry about him. Besides, as long as they didn't hurt his face he could hide it and what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. One of the bombers from yesterday had gotten a good hit in and knocked him back into a piece of flaming timber. He knew that the burns to his back and side were probably pretty bad but they were bandaged and they were healing quite fast. It was another perk to his run-in with his father's spiders.

"Peter, are you okay?" Gwen asked worriedly. "You look kind of stretched."

"No, no, I'm just tired. Patrol went a little longer than expected last night." He smiled and tried to shrug it off. For the most part, Gwen didn't push the subject but she still told him not to come over tonight and go home to get some rest instead. He reluctantly agreed. He took her hand and they wandered back through the school to the front gate. Gwen had a presentation to give in the science labs that afternoon and so Peter had been waiting for her. And when he said waiting he meant sitting on the roof and jumping down on her. She'd nearly slapped him and started berating him with questions like 'what if somebody sees?' and 'do you think that was funny?'. It really was. They stepped out of the science block and gazed up at the sky. Snow was spiralling down from the darkening clouds.

"Looks like it's going to storm," Gwen mused, watching the flakes fall like a fascinated child.

"Yeah," Peter agreed without taking his eyes off his girlfriend. She looked absolutely beautiful. Her lips had gone bright red against her pale skin with the cold and her blonde hair fell like spun sunshine around her face (hold on, when did he get so poetic?). The image shattered as Gwen turned to look at him with a fierce commanding expression.

"Peter, don't go out patrolling tonight. You'll get pneumonia. Not to mention how run down you are already." Despite her apparent anger, Peter could tell she was really just worried about him.

"Alright, I won't go out tonight," Peter lied. He could take a night off but all the thugs that beat and rob innocent people wouldn't.

Gwen looked at him, unsatisfied, but said nothing. She reached up, kissed him and went off down the road to her home. Peter let out a deep sigh, wishing they lived closer together. Gwen lived in the high-rise part of the city near all the apartment buildings, office towers and, the most memorable landmark, Stark Tower. Peter lived in the opposite direction in the residential part of the city; small houses, cottages and corner shops. When he got a job (assuming he could keep one living his double life) he would like to move Aunt May into a nice apartment that wouldn't be so hard for her to take care of, somewhere closer to Gwen. Peter had to face the fact that she wasn't as young as she used to be and losing Uncle Ben had taken its toll on her.

Peter meandered down an alley, figuring it to be a good enough spot. He found a space that wasn't sleeted with snow and climbed the brick face to the roof of the building. He walked to a small venting pipe sticking out of the floor and pulled the grate off. He changed out of his day clothes, donning his alter ego to prepare for the nights activities. He hid his bag in the pipe using his web to stick it to the wall out of sight, replaced the grate and swung off into the worsening weather.

**~AVENGERS**

"Hey, Steve, could you clear three please?"

Steve looked over to his manager, a pretty brunette of about twenty-seven named Kathy.

"Sure," he smiled.

She had been very good to him. After the Incident, Steve needed to get away. He needed time to think without SHIELD breathing down his neck. He packed up his things and ran. It was actually a lot easier than he thought to dodge them. He knocked out the two guards that they had trailing him with ease and then it was a simple matter of avoiding cameras and those 'credit card' things that they had given him. He supposed that Fury assumed because Steve was a solider he wouldn't abandon his post but that wasn't necessarily true. If he needed to get away he would get away. So here he was. He'd managed to get two states away before he ran out of cash, which wasn't much. Kathy had found him walking down a street in the middle of a storm and picked him up. She'd let him stay at her house for a while. Once she'd gotten him a job at her café and he had enough money he had insisted on moving into a hotel. At first she'd asked him all kinds of questions about who he was and where he'd come from but eventually she settled on just one.

"What are you running from?"

Steve looked up at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you won't tell me who you are or where you're from and you never talk about it which means the logical answer is that you're running away. So, what are you running from?"

Steve's eyes dropped to his hands. Kathy was a smart girl, too smart to be waiting tables. He knew she's figure it out eventually, he'd just hoped it wouldn't be this soon.

"I found out something." When he finally spoke Kathy scooted closer. She was finally getting some answers to the enigmatic Steve Rogers. "Something I wasn't ready to know. Something I didn't know how to deal with. So, I ran."

"Steve," Kathy placed her hand over his. "Whatever it is, you can't keep running forever. I'm sure there's somebody out there that's wondering where you are."

"I haven't had anybody in a long time, Kathy," Steve smiled sadly. And it was true. Everyone he knew had died before he even woke up. He was completely alone.

"You've got me, stupid!" She punched him in the arm playfully and gave him a friendly smile.

"And I thank God every day."

"You better!" she laughed.

That had been over two weeks ago. As Steve cleared the table he wondered absently why he hadn't left. He supposed he was still not ready to deal with it. It had been hard to accept when he'd heard but he didn't think it gave him the right to run like he had. He wondered if the team really were worried about him. He scoffed at the thought. If anyone was worried about him it was probably Fury because he didn't know whether he was out destroying towns or not. Steve laughed bitterly.

He truly was all alone.

**~AVENGERS~**

Loki sobbed weakly, the tears stinging his ruined flesh as he cried. Pain scorched through his being, tearing at him body and soul. He wept helplessly at the never-ending torment he was forced to endure. Time crawled by here. How long had it been? Hours? Days? He doubted he would ever know and knew he wouldn't care. He wanted it to end but he feared the end for he knew what he was supposed to do. The end of the pain meant the start of something worse. He wished he could repent but knew that no amount of begging would stop what was to come. He knew he was doomed to the fait written by his elders centuries ago. All at once the pain stopped. Loki cried harder knowing that it would not last. Peace dangled before him on a string to make it hurt worse when the agony began again. And it worked every time. Every cycle would burn stronger than the last. He just had to wait.

_1, 2, 3, 4, 5…_

There was still no pain. Loki opened his eyes to find the snake gone. He gave a choked laugh. No more pain. He laughed harder, felt the tears trace down his face. He could feel it. He could feel the tears. It was one of the sweetest feelings in the world. He felt whole.

"Calm yourself, trickster," came an odd voice. There was something wrong with it. It echoed somehow in the open space.

"Who are you?" Loki asked. Despite his poor condition his voice still dripped with venom. A figure walked into his field of vision. It was a woman. She was beautiful. She had hair as black as pitch and eyes as green as emeralds. She stepped toward Loki and laid a hand on his arm. Both of their skin began to turn a deep navy blue. Loki's eyes widened and he turned back to the woman.

"It's time, my son."

**~AVENGERS~**

Peter limped down the street. It was almost midnight and he knew Aunt May would be waiting for him when he got home. The storm had turned into a full blown blizzard. Patrol had gone along easily enough, just a few back alley beatings to deal with and no new injuries to cover up. He'd changed back into his regular clothes and started home but the weather was making the trek difficult. He hugged his jacket closer around him. He had definitely not dressed for this kind of weather. Thunder cracked overhead. Peter would normally not have bothered but today he looked up. Ever since the Incident people have been watching the skies, Peter included, but he thought he'd gotten over it. Today though something compelled him to look up and if he hadn't perhaps the next few weeks would have gone very differently.

But Peter had looked up. And what he saw terrified him. Above in the clouds a tornado was forming. A tornado made entirely of clouds and split with green lightning. It was like nothing Peter had ever seen before. It reminded him of the vortex he had seen in the sky on the day of the Incident but it was so different. Peter froze, alone in the street, and watched. It grew in length and speed. The eerily green bolts of electricity sliced through the sky, drowning the city in its strange light. It descended further and then it hit the ground. Peter felt the ground shake under his feet but the twister had landed several blocks away. Peter waited for it to start moving, to start throwing cars and trees, to again destroy the city on the verge of recovery. But nothing happened. It stayed where it was for several moments. There was a final lightning strike that seemed to travel down the eye of the tornado where it seemed to hit the ground.

And then it vanished.

The entire tornado, the lightning, the green glow, the funnel of clouds, all of it just disappeared. It dispersed into the air so quickly that you might of though it had never been there at all. Peter looked at his watch. The entire thing had happened in less than two minutes. Peter stared at where the twister had been and his mind was made up. He started to run. He jumped. And then he started to swing. He wanted to see. It took him approximately forty-five seconds to reach the sight. He dropped to the pavement. He was at the skate park on the edge of the city. The usually lively hang out was abandoned in the horrid weather. Lucky.

"Holy shit…" Peter gasped. In the centre of the snow covered concrete bowl was a giant circle burned into the cement. Strange symbols and patterns spread from the outer ring to the middle. Peter didn't recognise any of them. His eyes trace a single straight line running from the outermost curve to the innermost. In the centre, slowly being covered over by the raging blizzard was a small black bundle. Peter ran forward falling to his knees in front of it. The bundle was tiny, small enough to fit in the palms of Peter's hands, and covered in silky black fur. Peter gently rolled it over to see the sleeping face of kitten. It couldn't have been more than three weeks old. Its leg was twisted into an unnatural angle. Peter pulled his jacket off and wrapped the cat in the soft fabric and hugged it close, trying to rub some warmth into the lifeless bundle. Peter turned on his heel and sped home, desperate to get out of the weather and get the kitten to somewhere it could warm up.

He burst through the door to his house, calling for his aunt knowing she would still be up.

"Peter? What's…" she asked coming around the door from the kitchen. She saw the frantic look on his face and the bundle in his arms.

"Aunt May, I can't get it warm and I think its leg is broken," Peter blurted.

"Okay, Peter. Calm down and let me see." Aunt May walked towards him and peeled back the jacket to look at the cat. She seemed momentarily surprised but quickly started giving orders. "Peter, give it to me and go to the kitchen. Under the sink is the first aid kit. Bring that, some blankets and a hot water bottle back here. Off you go."

Peter did as he was told, taking no longer than two minutes to return with the requested items. Aunt May handed the kitten back to Peter and told him to sit in front of the heater. She tossed one of the blankets over his shoulders and another in his lap. She laid the water bottle down over the blanket and told him to put the cat on top. He did.

"Now, let's see to that leg." She pulled the jumper gently away from the sleeping ball of fur, leaving it shivering in Peter's lap. He looked at it worriedly. "He'll be fine Peter. He's strong." Peter gave her a weak smile as she went back to work. May took the broken leg in her hand and looked at Peter. "Hold him still. This is going to hurt him." Peter placed a tentative hand on the kitten's stomach and the other on its head to keep it in place. "Okay, one, two, three!" She twisted the leg and there was crunching noise as the bone slipped back in place. The cat kicked and meowed quietly but otherwise didn't complain. That made Peter worried. Aunt May carefully plastered and splinted the limb, taking care not to cause the creature further distress. When she'd finished she left the room and returned a few minutes later with a warm cup of tea for Peter and more blankets and pillows.

"I have a feeling you two are going to be inseparable so sleep here in front of the heater to keep him warm."

"Thanks Aunt May," Peter sighed, taking careful sips of the tea and settling down onto the floor, replacing the cat and water bottle on his chest, draping another blanket over the top of it. "I'll have to think of a name for you," he yawned, his eyes sliding closed. The kitten gave a gentle purr and Peter smiled.

Somehow, he felt like he'd never done more good in his life.

**A/N: ****Was that a bit long? I didn't know whether to cut it down or not. Would you guys prefer longer or shorter chapters? They would normally be around the 1, 000 to 2, 000 word mark if short and upwards of 3, 000 if long. It's up to you guys. Just bare in mind that longer chapters take longer to write.**

**Thanks for reading! You're beautiful! See you next time!**


	4. Chapter 3: Back to School

**A/N: ****Hi everyone! Happy New Year! I know I told you guys I would have it up on New Years Day but between the New Years party and my birthday and the concert and my aunty's birthday I didn't have time to finish the chapter. Sorry about that... Anyway, here it is! Enjoy!**

**Ragnarok**

**Chapter 3: Back to School**

It had only taken a single call to Midtown Science High and Tony's name to get them to hand over their student files. Tony had spouted some BS about a potential internship for someone at their school and the possibility of donation which made it seem too good to be true. Of course, no one at the records office had thought 'well, then it must be.' Which made the Avengers jobs all the much easier. They had spent the last two days dividing up and scouring the files for potential Spidermen. Tony didn't understand how half of these kids had gotten into that school. They were as dumb as doorknobs! Some of the files made Tony feel like he'd rather be hitting his head against a brick wall.

"How about this kid? Flash Thompson." Natasha asked. "He's captain of the basketball team, trained in taekwondo-"

"That kid's a jock," Bruce interrupted. The doctor never interrupted. The team took it as a sign that they really needed a break. "All he does is beat on small kids and get straight C's. He's as dull as a brick and probably couldn't change a light bulb."

"And he's too big," Tony chipped in. "The kid was scrawny. He looked like the Cap pre-serum." An intense silence filled the room at the mention of Steve. Everyone was worried about him. Tony was constantly checking any information network he had for sign of the Captain but there was still nothing. They all missed him and they all wanted him home.

"Maybe we can narrow the search more," Clint mused.

"How, Legolas?"

"Well, maybe he's got some motivation for what he's doing. I mean, we all started for a reason, right?"

"I started because I was sick of the things I made killing the people they were meant to protect," Tony supplied.

"I started because I had nowhere to run and no one to turn to and I didn't want anyone else to know what that feels like," Natasha answered.

"I started because the military took away my life and I thought I might be able to do something good with what I had left," Bruce stated. All eyes turned back to Clint. No one but Natasha and SHIELD knew why he started. He'd known he would have to tell them eventually but he didn't think it would be so hard.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and answered, "I started because someone took everything from me and when I took everything from them I needed something to fill the void." SHIELD had filled the void, given him something to live for, but now he supposed that the Avengers were filling that void. The Avengers were his new family.

"Right!" Tony said hopefully. "If this kid had a reason for running around in a leotard, what would it be?"

"Maybe he just enjoys it?" Bruce thought.

"No, no, it's never that simple," Natasha dismissed. "Maybe he feels responsible for something?"

"Or maybe he lost someone," Clint said quietly. Tony snapped his fingers. He snatched a tablet off the table and typed quickly at the screen. Six different files appeared on the monitor when he'd finished. The team looked over them.

"These are the kids that fit our age bracket who had deaths in the family around the time Spiderman first appeared."

Natasha began opening them one at a time, listing the information of each while the rest of the team scrutinized the data. The first picture magnified on the screen. It showed a young boy with acne, glasses and glassy green eyes. He fit the 'nerd' bill perfectly

"Aaron Harkness. Nineteen, straight A's, accomplished in physics and engineering. Six months ago his mother died in a car accident. By peer accounts he became 'reclusive and uncaring.' As far as I can tell, he has no combat training and no prior history of violent behaviour."

"Hmm. I don't think so," Tony said as he stared at the picture. He just didn't seem like the kind of kid to go and beat up criminals in the dead of night.

"Clint, you're the one with experience here. What do you think?" Bruce asked, unable to form an opinion. Clint looked at the photo again, running through the information again in his mind.

"I don't think it's this kid."

"Right, well," Natasha opened the next file. They went through it much the same as they had the last; everyone reviewed the data, gave an opinion and then the decision fell to Clint. They repeated this for the next three files, each time Barton shook his head. When they opened the fifth file he stopped. The kid on the screen was young, the youngest of the lot. He was a relatively attractive guy but he looked like he couldn't possibly put more product in his hair. He had hazel eyes and chestnut hair. He looked innocent enough in the photo but something about him stuck out to Clint. "Peter Parker," Natasha read. "Seventeen, straight A's, accomplished all round… no parents." Everyone in the team turned to look at the boy on the screen. "His parents died in a plane crash when he was six and left him in the care of his aunt and uncle. The uncle, Benjamin Parker, was killed in a stabbing outside a convenience store five months ago. The killer was never caught. Just before the murder he started to get into trouble. He broke a school basketball backboard and humiliated the school bully, Flash Thompson."

"I told you that guy was no good," Bruce smirked. Natasha made a mocking face and kept reading.

"He also impersonated an intern and snuck into Oscorp's main building."

"Hey, Bruce, what did you say that web stuff Spidey uses was?" Tony asked.

"Umm." Bruce tapped hurriedly on his tablet. "Uh, Biocable. It's made from genetically altered spider silk. It's made by…" Bruce faltered for a moment before looking up at the group. "It's made by Oscorp."

Tony looked at the screen for a moment before he had a thought. "Romanov, was there a picture of the guy that killed the kid's uncle?"

"There was a sketch." She flicked the picture up onto the screen. An artist's sketch of a ruff looking man with shoulder length hair and sunglasses stared at them from its surface.

"Huh," Tony mused before swapping the picture out for a number of others that looked almost identical to the sketch. "When Spiderman first started out all the criminals he turned in looked alike. The police labelled him a vigilante because they thought he had some kind of vendetta against a guy who looked like this." Tony brought up the sketch to join the photos of the other men. "I think we know why."

"Well, there's certainly enough reason to suspect him. But it's up to Clint," Natasha said, turning to look at her partner.

He hadn't stopped staring at the picture since it came onto the screen. It was just so familiar. He reminded Clint of himself before SHIELD found him. He'd been lost and doing just about anything he could to get back at the men who took everything he held dear and crushed it. He was trying to find meaning in life. In the photo Peter looked like he was searching for the same thing. But Clint guessed he'd found it because he stopped going after this guy and started helping people. This Parker kid was on the right track but Clint was worried that without help Peter would soon get himself hurt or worse. He looked to Tony who he realized had been watching him.

"It's him."

"You're sure?"

"As sure as I can be without meeting him."

"Right," Tony clapped his hands together. "Now how are we going to bring him over to the dark side?"

**~AVENGERS~**

Peter stirred. He felt something warm on his chest. He opened his eyes to see the small black kitten still curled under the blanket. Peter smiled softly, the memory of the night's events returning to him. The kitten breathed deeply atop the water bottle, a good sign that the cold hadn't damaged his health too severely. Peter gave a gentle sigh of contentment and closed his eyes again. He thought about the kitten curled up on his stomach; so small and so vulnerable. It reminded Peter of himself pre-Spiderman. He'd spent all his time getting beaten on by one bully or another and that was his life. He'd just accepted it. He was small and unimportant. That was who he was and he'd just gone with it. He couldn't help but wonder what his life would have been like if he had just stayed with the tour group like Gwen told him to. He would have remained the misfit at school. He would have been the black sheep. _Or the black cat as it were. _He chuckled lightly.

Pain stabbed through Peter's chest. He hissed and opened his eyes to find a pair of blazing impossibly blue eyes staring at him from under the blanket. The kitten shot to its feet, stumbling over the cast on its leg and falling off Peter's chest. Peter caught the cat just in time.

"Wow, little guy," Peter laughed as he set the ball of fur onto the carpet. "You don't want to hurt yourself." It looked up at Peter indignantly and gave a long meow. It stopped, its eyes growing wide, and looked down at its body. It gave a loud yowl and began pacing up and down with what could only be described a rant. Peter watched it and laughed. There was something so human about what it was doing that Peter couldn't help but find it hilarious. The cat looked up at him and glared. Peter just laughed harder.

"Peter? Come have some breakfast," Aunt May called from the kitchen.

"Coming!" Peter heaved himself to his feet, instantly feeling the chill away from the blankets, and headed to the kitchen. Aunt may had a plate of bacon and eggs laid out for him. He fell into the chair and ate hungrily.

"So what are you going to call him?" Aunt May asked. Peter gave her a questioning look and she motioned to the kitten that had made his way into the kitchen and was now sitting in a corner busily eating some cut up sausage. Peter thought for a moment.

"Kit. I think I like Kit. What do you think?" He asked the small ball of fur. It poked its tongue out at him and fell to its haunches in a huff.

"Kit it is," she laughed.

"And in other news, strange marking have been found…" the TV on the counter blared the news report. Peter turned to look at the screen. He froze. On the screen was the same circle of markings that Peter had picked Kit up from last night. He listened silently as the report continued. From the floor below Kit did the same. "…scientist believe that these tell the return of Thor, a member of the Avengers and our ally during the attack known as The Incident. SHIELD is refusing to give a statement on the matter but…"

"Sorry, Aunt May. I gotta go." Peter stood up and headed to the door.

"Wait! Peter! You haven't even showered yet!" Her calls went unheard as Peter scooped his bag, skateboard and jacket off the floor before closing the door behind him. Aunt May sighed. "That boy…" She turned to the corner where Kit had been seated. Lying by the emptied plate was the small cast that had been around his leg. But there was no sign of the black kitten.

He was gone.

**~AVENGERS~**

"This is stupid."

"It was your idea, Robin."

"I was joking!"

"Would you two cut it out! We're on a mission, remember?"

The meeting of the night previous had ended with an agreement on two points. The first being that they couldn't approach Peter unless they were sure he was Spiderman. The second being that if Peter _was _Spiderman, they would do everything they could to keep his identity from Fury. Peter was just a kid and Natasha and Clint knew better than anyone that Fury showed no mercy, child or no. So the discussion had turned to how to determine if Peter was really Spiderman. Tony had suggested that he talk to him as the kid seemed to have some (idiotic, in Clint's opinion) admiration for Tony. This was when the first point was agreed upon. Bruce had said if they could get him a blood sample then he could run an analysis to look for anomalies that would point toward a genetic mutation that granted him his abilities. This was turned down because everyone thought it would be too difficult to get the blood and the analysis might not turn up anything. They already knew that the webs were homemade so why not the rest of his powers? Natasha had thought of searching Peter's room while he was out and looking for his costume or anything that would confirm their suspicions. This had been ruled out as too risky and an invasion of privacy. That was when Clint had jokingly suggested that he 'stalk' the kid until he put the mask on. Unfortunately for him, everyone had taken the suggestion seriously.

And here they were. Clint was perched atop the building opposite the Parker household. It was incredibly early in the morning. Tony had forced him out of bed at three AM shouting something along the lines of 'the early bird gets the spider'. Tony and Clint had been bickering via radio for the past five hours. Bruce, who was sitting in the 'control room' as Tony called it, was finally starting to lose his patience. When Bruce got angry that meant you'd reached the final straw. They both stopped immediately.

"Jeese Bruce, I need to keep you around more often," Natasha chuckled at the sudden radio silence. She was ten blocks away at the school returning all the files they borrowed and asking the teachers some questions about Peter. It was Saturday so not many of them were available but the head teachers had gathered for a staff meeting.

"I've got movement." The entire group silenced. Bruce was sitting watching the video feed from Clint's chest. The door swung open and the young boy stepped out. He was even smaller than Clint had imagined. "Jesus, somebody get that kid a steak." Peter swung on his jacket and backpack before dropping his board to the icy ground and taking off. Clint went after him, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, keeping his attention divided between Peter and where he was going. Peter sped past the school and kept going. They started coming into high-rise area and Clint was forced higher to reach the rooves, making it more difficult for him to keep track of the kid. Difficult but not impossible. He kept following him. "We're moving closer to Stark Tower here guys."

"Why the hell is he coming here?" Tony asked, the loud snapping and crackling of a welder in the background signalling his return to the lab.

"I never said he was _going _to Stark Tower. I said he was getting close, bolts for brains."

"I swear to God, if you two start again-"

"Wait, he stopped."

Silence.

"So? What's he doing here, Barton?" Clint started laughing. Bruce quickly joined in. "What?"

"A girl."

**~AVENGERS~**

Peter waited in the elevator, tapping his foot nervously and watching the numbers scroll by. He wanted to get to Gwen. He wanted to tell her about Kit and about the markings and get her advice. She was always smarter than him and always more sensible. He didn't know what to make of the information he had. No matter what way he put the pieces together it just didn't seem to make sense. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. He hurried down the corridor until he found apartment 316. He smiled as he remembered the way Gwen had repeated those numbers over and over when she'd invited him to dinner months ago. It seemed so long. He knocked and it opened almost immediately to the face of Mrs Stacy.

"Peter," she smiled. "Come on in. Gwen's in her room." Peter thanked her and made his way inside. Ever since he and Gwen got back together he had frequented the Stacy's home and after the first few weeks Gwen had convinced him to use the front door instead of the balcony. He was now a welcome guest. Peter would often bring this or that for Gwen's mother; a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of wine. Just something to say thank you for tolerating his frequent unexpected visits. Of course, she didn't know when Peter came over at ungodly hours of the morning because Gwen asked or because he just wanted to see her. It always amazed Peter that she never looked exhausted like he did. He was sure that she slept just as little as Peter and he always berated himself for making her worry but as soon as she got that text at two in the morning when Peter usually knocked off she was sound asleep. It was a little ritual they'd developed. Whenever Peter went out patrolling he would text her when he got home. It was just to let her know that he was safe and everything was fine. He'd forgotten once. He would never forget again. Gwen had run back to his house at four in the morning and banged on the door. When Aunt May opened it she pushed straight past her and ran up to Peter's room, throwing herself on top of him. She's hit him and cried. After an hour of this she fell asleep. In the morning they had explained to Aunt May that one of Gwen's relatives had died and she just couldn't be at home that night. She had been incredibly understanding and told her to stay as long as she needed.

That was about two months ago. Now, as Peter stepped into Gwen's room, he remembered last night's text. He'd sent it from the rooftop after he changed into his street clothes. It had simply said 'Sleep tight, Gwen.' He looked at her and smiled. She was seated at her desk bent over a book. She probably hadn't even heard him come in. Peter crept across the room and bent down next to her ear. He opened his mouth to whisper-

"Did you really think you could sneak up on me, bug boy?" Gwen smiled.

"Oh never…" he mumbled, tilting her face up to his and kissing her gently. When he pulled away a blush had spread across her cheeks and a smile had plastered itself on her face. She looked gorgeous.

"What can I do for you Mr Parker?" she asked in a mockingly formal tone.

"I need advice," he sighed as he dropped down into the chair next to her. She sat down next to him and listened as he recounted the events of his walk home. She scowled when he told her that he'd gone patrolling despite the weather but said nothing. When he mentioned the cat she looked interested. When he mentioned the markings she looked utterly absorbed.

"And the cat was in the middle of the symbols?"

"Yeah. It's weird right? The news said that they meant Thor had come back but why was Kit there?"

"Kit?"

"That's what we're calling him."

"Cute," she smiled.

"Oww!" Peter cried, jumping up.

"What? What's wrong?"

"It felt like something bit me!" he clawed at the back of his jacket. He yanked it up and over his head throwing it to the floor. He reached down and pulled up what fell out. "What are you…?"

**~AVENGERS~**

"Something's happening," Clint reported.

"What the hell?" Tony had since relocated to the control room with Bruce. At the mention of a girl Tony's interest piqued.

"What's going on?" Natasha asked, sounding a little worried.

"It looks like he got bitten by something."

"By what?" Bruce wondered.

"Wait… is that…?" Clint could almost hear Tony squinting at the screen.

"Why the hell did he have a cat in his jacket?!"

**~AVENGERS~**

By the time he finished talking to Gwen it was ten o'clock and Peter was due for his weekend rounds. On week days he patrolled from three thirty to two and on weekends from ten to two. Well, at least that was this week. He knew that if he kept the same schedule that someone would eventually boil it down to someone still in school so he changed it every week. Last week on Saturday he worked from three AM to twelve AM. It was just another way of throwing anybody off his trail.

Gwen hadn't been able to come up with anything in terms of Kit's appearance in the circle but his appearance in Peter's jacket had completely lost him the conversation. Gwen was much too interested in the kitten to try and think about it further. Kit, however, as Peter was learning, didn't like to be treated as anything less than royalty. He detested being picked up and could quiet clearly understand when he was being made fun of. He had nipped at Gwen's fingers when she tried to pat him but once she started stroking under his chin his face took on a look of pure bliss. He'd told her that he had to go and she gave him that look that said 'if you come back with anymore injuries I won't be held responsible for what I do to you'.

Peter had sped home on his board and handed Kit off to Aunt May who had clearly been frantic about finding him. That was when Peter noticed it. He took Kit's leg in his hand.

"I thought this was broken," he said.

"So did I." They looked at each other, confused, but then the clock struck eleven. Peter quickly bid her goodbye and ran out the door again. He sped down the street until he reached a dark alley.

**~AVENGERS~**

"Looks like it's show time," Clint smirked. He jumped over to the top of one of the building either side of the alley Peter had just turned down. Clint squinted into the darkness to see the kid pulling off his jacket and shirt. "Have you guys got a visual?"

"Yep and it looks like you got it right, Hawkeye."

Clint nearly toppled over the edge of the building. Stark never called him Hawkeye. He always used some stupid insult or 'Barton'. Clint smirked. He was going to hold this over him for so long. Down in the alley, Peter was stuffing his clothes into a bag. Under them, he'd been wearing the same red and blue suit they'd all spent the last two days staring at and wondering about. Clint had gotten it right. Peter pushed aside a large and rather full garbage bin with one hand like it was an empty cardboard box. He slipped behind it, stashed is bag and pushed the bin back in place. Peter pulled the mask over his head and turned to scale the wall.

The wall of the building Clint was standing on.

"Shit!" he grumbled, turning and bolting to the other side of the roof, leaping across to the next, slightly shorter, building and dropping onto his back.

"Clint! Get up before you lose him!" Bruce ordered. That was new. Clint pulled himself to his feet just in time to see Spiderman drive over the edge of the building. Clint ran. Spiderman was swinging with tremendous speed. Clint was having trouble keeping up. After three blocks Spiderman was some eighty yards ahead of him and still gaining distance. Clint stopped.

"What are you doing, Legolas?!"

"I can't keep up with him. Those web things make for some pretty effective transport."

"Come back to the Tower, Clint. Mission accomplished," Natasha said over the coms.

"Now we know who we're dealing with," Bruce chuckled.

"Now the question is _how _to deal with him."

Tony chuckled. "Now that's an easy one."

**A/N: ****Thanks for reading guys! It means a lot. And a giant thank you to those of you who take the time to review. I love you guys! Next chapter should be in a week but I'm starting school soon so I'll try to keep up with my updates but sorry in advance if I miss one. Bye guys!**


	5. Chapter 4: A Series of Unfortunate Event

**A/N: Hey guys! It's been awhile huh? Sorry about that... It's been a crazy couple of months for me. I started at a new school, worked at the Royal Easter Show, entered a competition that could potentially win me a book deal and now my room is getting torn down and rebuilt so, yeah, busy. It took me awhile to get back into the groove of writing for this story but I hope I didn't muck it up too badly.**

**THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR THIS CHAPTER!****  
Okay so like I said, I'm trying to follow both the mythology and the movies for this so this is a little important. The death of Balder is one of the first signs of Loki's decent into evil that triggers Ragnarok. One thing that's different though is that I started with Loki tied up and awaiting Ragnarok but in the mythology Loki is tied up after he ruins a feast (this will come later)and then left to wait. I swapped this around a bit though to fit with the movies because Loki was taken back to Asgard at the end of the Avengers to face punishment. The death of Balder is told that the blind Hodr wanted to join in the festivities so Loki helped him to aim a branch of mistletoe at the god. Mistletoe is supposedly the one thing that Frigga didn't get a promise from because it was considered too weak and unimportant to bother with. Look how well that turned out! Anyway I think that's all the important stuff so have fun! **

**Ragnarok**

**Chapter 4: A Series of Unfortunate Events**

Cheering and laughter filled the halls of Asgard that night. Frigga had travelled to all of the nine worlds to collect the promises that would save her son. Long-suffering Balder, plagued by dreams of his death, was now invulnerable thanks to her work. Nothing in all the nine realms could harm him and, believing him to be safe at last, the party had begun. Doubly joyous was this celebration as the Bifrost, the bridge to Earth, had final been rebuilt. Thor couldn't be happier. His friends were happy, his brother was safe, and he could soon re-join his friends in the new land of York. He would be able to see Jane. The ridiculous grin on his face grew threefold.

Thor stumbled into the growing circle of gods that had formed around Balder. Everyone was throwing this or that at him and watching in amazement as it just bounced off, Frigga's promises holding true. Thor laughed as a mug of ale shattered, spraying the crowd with the sticky amber liquid. His brother chuckled along with the rest of the group but Thor saw the slight unease in his stance. He stepped into the circle waving his hands to settle the crowd briefly, walking over to where Balder stood leaning gently against the wall.

"Brother!" Thor greeted, clapping him on the arm. "It is a wondrous day, is it not?"

"Indeed it is and yet I find myself… ah, but that is not talk for a party," he sighed, leaning against Thor's shoulder. "This is a day for celebration! Yet here I am, no drink in hand?"

Thor gave a hearty chuckle. "Of course, of course! We can hardly have you dying thirst now can we!"

Thor ducked off to get the glasses, the smile fading from his face the minute his back was turned. There was something troubling his brother. He had heard stories of the dreams that wracked Balder's sleep but he would never tell anyone of the exact circumstances. Perhaps… But no. Mother had her promises. Nothing in any of the nine worlds would harm him now. He was perfectly safe. What, then, had his brother so distraught? No matter. As Balder had said, today is not the day.

He grabbed their glasses and returned to the gathering. Balder was standing apart from the wall now, smiling as more objects were tossed toward him. Thor laughed and look among the crowd at the things being thrown; pots and pans, candles, chairs, swords. There was no limit to the variety. He looked back to Balder. The smile fell from his face again. Balder was staring at the other side of the room, his eyes fixed open and mouth slightly agape. Thor followed his line of sight. There was Hodr, the blind god, the one person that Balder had been trying to avoid. He was standing in the circle joining the festivities. He held above his head a branch aimed at Balder, just like the other gods around him. Thor didn't understand what had his brother so stunned.

But then he saw it.

A sliver of black locks, pale white skin and a treacherous toothy grin. Hodr pulled his arm back and threw the branch. Balder closed his eyes. Thor cried out. The branch struck Balder in the heart and passed through his chest. Hodr stumbled forward and revealed the hideously mocking face of his supposedly trapped brother. Thor screamed and ran toward Loki. The trickster laughed and vanished before he got the chance to… father, what could he do? He turned back to Balder, collapsing by his side. He pulled his bleeding form into his lap and cradled his head.

"Brother," came his broken plea. "You'll be alright. This isn't the end for you yet, my friend."

"It is starting…" Balder whispered. His eyes rolled over to look at Thor. He watched as the light faded from them.

**~AVENGERS~**

"Excuse me?" a quiet voice asked. Steve turned around to see a gentle looking old woman sitting by herself staring at him expectantly.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" He walked over and pulled the order pad from the apron wrapped around his hips.

"Yes," She reached into her handbag and removed a small notebook holding it out to him on a blank page. "Could I have your autograph, Captain?"

Steve faltered. _Oh, hell. _He'd been recognized. That was the first time. He quickly looked around. No Kathy. Good. Just one autograph wouldn't hurt, would it? He smiled and bent down closer to the woman. "And what's your name, miss?"

"Peggy," she smiled. Steve stopped and looked at her. She was grinning like a child who'd met their hero which, he supposed, she was. He plastered back on that fake smile and signed her book.

"Funny. I used to know a Peggy."

"Did you, now? I bet she was beautiful."

Steve smiled sadly as he whispered "Yeah, she was." He turned away and cleared off the other table. He was too deep in thought to see Kathy standing in the doorway looking at him, that same curious expression in her eyes as the day they first met.

**~AVENGERS~**

Clint sat in the control room watching the monitors intensely. The whole 'invasion of privacy' thing had gone out the window with the discovery that Parker was actually Spiderman. They now had cameras hooked up in the house, school and vantage points on the girlfriend, Gwen Stacey's house. It had only taken them a week to set up the surveillance but it was made rather difficult by the snow which hadn't stopped since the day before they followed him halfway round the city. Right now, he was laying on his bed checking his new wounds. A bad run-in with a group of petty thieves had left him with a fairly severe knife wound and an obvious concussion. Clint checked the time again. 1 AM. The plan was to approach him tonight. They couldn't let him fall asleep, not with that concussion, and if he didn't get proper medical treatment the stab wound could become infected or he might just bleed out.

"How's he doing?" Bruce asked as he filtered into the room with the rest of the team in tow.

"He's still awake," Clint nodded. "But I'm worried about that knife wound. It looks pretty serious."

"I have medical training," Natasha supplied. "I can fix him up when we head in."

"When exactly are we going to do that?" Tony prodded. Patience wasn't really his strong suit.

He knew exactly when. They had agreed on a plan earlier in the week but it was set for two days from now. After Peter was attack though, the plans changed. Peter was going to get himself killed if the rest of them didn't step in. They'd hoped that Tony's star status would get him a meeting with Parker about an internship at Stark Industries where he could talk to him privately about his extracurricular activities. With the events of the night they'd had to tweak their plans a bit. The new plan was to wait another hour and send in Natasha to help patch him up with Tony to talk him out of trying to fight his way past them. It seemed like a good enough plan considering it had been thrown together in about ten minutes.

"Tony, you can't push him," Bruce warned. "He probably doesn't want anything to do with us."

"I just wanna talk to the kid! Pick his brains a bit, figure out his powers…"

"No," Bruce said sternly. Anyone would think the two of them were a married couple.

"Shit!" Clint cried. While they were arguing Peter had passed out. "Go! Go!" Clint yelled, shoving them towards the door. Bruce took up a spot next to Clint and watched Parker's chest rise and fall like a lifeline.

_He'll be fine, _Clint reassured himself, _we just need to wake him up. _

**~AVENGERS~**

Tony lowered Natasha to the small flat of roof and touched down as quietly as was possible in the bulky Iron Man suit. He gave the command and the suit folded down into the red and yellow suitcase at his feet. Romanov gave him a face that said 'could you make any more noise?' and ducked into the window left unfastened when the injured teen returned. Tony filed in after her and took in the room. It was small and reminded Tony of his own room from his adolescence. You know, minus the playboy posters, that is. Mechanical and design diagrams hung from the corkboard in their place above the tech-laden desk. A small trail of blood ran from the window to the bed on which lay the boy hero. Tony's brow instantly creased. Peter's face was white and sweat-soaked, completely contrasting the vibrant crimson that was coating his abdomen and quickly staining to sheets. He looked so much worse off than the bad video footage had shown.

Romanov was already at his side putting pressure on the wound. Tony stood next to her looking the kid over. He looked so small to be mixed up in this dangerous game. He was skinny and lithe but with slight muscle, just enough to give him some bulk. His chest was littered with faded scars. One set in particular caught Tony's eye; three long claw-like marks that stretched from the top of his left shoulder to the top of his right hip. _The Lizard… _

"Son of a bitch…" Tony mumbled. He stretched out his hand to brush the puckered skin. Peter's eyes snapped open. A hand connected with the side of Tony's face and he went flying against the wall. A foot swept under Romanov's feet and the next thing she knew she was stuck to the floor with that Biocable stuff.

"Who are you? What are you doing in my house?" Peter was inching closer to the window. Tony had to stop him.

"Ouch, Spidey! Am I really that forgettable?" Peter did a double take. He looked like he was about to ask something but then he looked down, saw what he was wearing, and cursed. "Nice to meet you, Pete."

"What the hell do you want, Stark?" Peter was still backing away. He looked like a caged animal, eyes wild and chest heaving. Though that may have been the blood loss.

"Well, first I want you to calm down before you bleed to death. Romanov here was trying to patch you up when you glued her to the floor."

"Yeah," Natasha pipped up from her position on the carpet. "And how do I get out of this stuff?"

Peter settled roughly onto the edge of the bed, one hand still wrapped firmly around his stomach. Poor kid looked like he was about to pass out. He reached around to the bedside table and grabbed a needle and thread. Tony watched with interest as Peter bit into a balled up shirt and began messily stitching his own wound. His eyes kept flickering to the billionaire in the corner as he did, making sure he was still standing away from him. He hurriedly disinfected and bandaged the wound before collapsing back on the bed panting. Tony had to admit, he was impressed. He'd had Pepper or Rhodey do his stiches when he needed them. He couldn't imagine having to do them himself.

"Damn, now that's going to scar," Natasha said, now standing and inspecting Peter's handiwork. He jumped back to his feet, fists at the ready. She held up her hands and backed up to stand next to Stark. "If you'd just let me do it…"

"I don't need your help!"

"Right," Tony scoffed. "But we wanted to ask if you-"

"No."

"But you don't even know what we're-"

"I said no! Leave me alone!"

Tony took a step forward. Peter threw himself out the window. "Great," he mumbled.

The speaker in his ear burst into life. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO PUSH HIM!"

**A/N: And there you have it! It's a little shorter than normal but like I said I'm still trying to get back in the groove. Thanks for your patience with me trying to get this written. I'll try to stay to the schedule from now on. (no promises really though) Reviews are always appreciated! Thanks again guys!**


	6. Chapter 5: Family Dinners are Hell

**A/N: *awkward laughter* So, it's been a while, huh? I'm sorry guys but I just couldn't bring myself to write anything for a while there. I just couldn't work up the motivation. BUT ANYWAY Here you are lovelies and you have no idea what it took for me to get back into the swing of this. I watch literally every Marvel movie I had about 10 times just so I could remember what the hell I'd been talking about in some of the previous chapters but IT'S DONE!**

**Enjoy guys and do tell me about any mistakes please? I'm not very good at editing...**

**Ragnarok**

**Chapter 5: Family Dinners are Hell**

Tony stood staring out the window, watching as flakes of snow gathered on the paned glass walls of Stark Tower. Peter had figured that there'd been cameras in his house and chosen to avoid it completely. He hadn't shown up at Stacey's house either. _Smart kid, _Tony thought. He wished the Cap was here. Steve was the diplomatic one. He was the one who was good at talking to people. He could have convinced Spiderman to let them help. All Tony managed was to lose the target completely.

Tony shook himself. Peter wasn't a target, he was a kid. God, Fury was starting to get to him. He couldn't let himself think like that. Cap wouldn't think like that.

Tony just wished that he was here…

**~AVENGERS~**

Steve was taking the order of some young newlyweds, trying not to mess up their meals due to the incredibly distracting feeling of five sets of aged, star-struck eyes boring into his back. Peggy, the lovely woman from the other day who'd asked for his autograph, had gone and told all her friends about Steve and now they came practically every day to drink tea and watch him. It was sweet if not a little disturbing.

The couple were staring at Steve worriedly and he realised that he'd finished taking their orders a few minutes ago and had just been standing there.

"Uh, thank you and it'll be out in just a few minutes," he stuttered in embarrassment as he retreated to the kitchen. The gathering of women giggled and made comments about Steve being 'handsomely bashful'. He clapped a hand over his face to hide his rising blush and wished for the millionth time that his hearing wasn't so good.

"Steve," he turned to see Kathy standing in the doorway with her 'no nonsense' face on. _Uh-oh. _"Can I talk to you for a minute?" The captain took a resigned breath and followed his manager into the back office. As soon as he closed the door she turned on him. "When were you going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?" he asked defensively.

"I'm not an idiot. I can google."

"What's google?" His brow furrowed. He may have lived in this century for over a year but he still wasn't quite caught up. Kathy threw her hands up in frustration.

"That you're Captain freaking America!" she nearly yelled. Steve cringed at her language but turned his eyes to the floor in acquiescence. He knew she was going to find out sooner or later but he just hoped it wouldn't be so soon. He still needed to think about things before she kicked him out.

"Kathy, I-"

"I can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner! My mom idolizes you! You've been all over the news for months because-" She stopped and turned wide understanding eyes on him. "Because you're missing…Steve, you have to go back!"

"No! Kathy, I can't."

"But everyone's looking for you! Tony Stark put out a reward for information about you! They're all-"

"They don't care about _me _Kathy! They care that I could be out destroying cities or-or selling state secrets!" Kathy was just staring at him now, her face somewhere between pitying and understanding. "I can't go back. Not yet."

"Steve… That's not the reason." Now Steve was the confused one. "You were running. It's time you told me what from."

**~AVENGERS~**

Peter sat in the park closest Gwen's house, back to a tree and arms pulled tight around his torso. He sat with his eyes closed as the flakes of snow fell heavily against his pallid skin. He'd rung Aunt May and told her that he was staying at a friend's place for a few days while school was cancelled due to the snow but really he'd been taking shelter in whatever crack, crevice or abandoned building he could get out of the weather in. He'd only been gone a few days but he was already cursing Iron Man by every god he could think of (some of which, recently confirmed real). All he wanted was to keep the streets clean, the people safe and stay out of their way. The Avengers were big fish in the little pond of the Isle of Manhattan. Peter was a little fish in a proportionate pond and, if we follow the fish analogy, big fish eats little fish. Peter really didn't want to be eaten. Catching their attention was potentially the worst thing that could have possibly happened. There were only two things that the Avengers and SHIELD could possibly want from him. The first was to take a vigilante that isn't under their control out of the picture which is where the fish thing comes in. Not an option that Peter wanted to consider. The second was to recruit him into the Avengers thereby putting him under their control and upgrading his level of enemies from burglars and drugs dealers to world-threatening space aliens and evil geniuses. Yeah, not liking the odds of that one either.

Peter had been one of the little people before all this and he knew exactly what it felt like to be looked down on by everyone. The Avengers didn't understand that. Or at least, Tony Stark didn't. Billionaire's son and world renowned playboy? He probably didn't think twice about the people hurt during their recent escapade with the Chitauri. Peter had lost friends in that fight, good friends.

He thought about Wade for the first time in a long time. He was Peter's best friend, if 'friend' was the right word. He was the only one besides Gwen who'd taken a real interest in Peter. Despite his inability to shut the hell up, Peter wouldn't have traded him for anyone. He was part of the reason he and Gwen had gotten together. Wade was the one who told Gwen what Peter had done to Flash in… mostly true words. He exaggerated a bit on the 'awesomeness of Peter'(his words).

But Wade was gone. In the fighting one of the Chitauri bike things had fallen through the roof of the building and hit Wade. He always was an unlucky son of gun. He was still alive when they took him to the hospital and he was after the surgery as well but he disappeared from his bed a few days later. The doctors told his parents that he wouldn't survive long without proper treatment and life support. After two weeks with no sign the doctors said there was no chance so his parents had him declared dead. He was Peter's only friend and they wrote him off just like that. Peter angrily threw this head back against the tree.

Stark had no idea what it was like for everyone else.

Peter was responsible for the little people, the ones that the Avengers (he almost spat at the name) knew nothing about and cared nothing for. They were his job and he couldn't watch out for them with SHIELD's pawns breathing down his neck.

Peter shifted and cringed. The knife wound was healing much slower than his other wounds had. He vaguely considered that maybe he should have let Black Widow patch him up. Peter snapped upright. He bit back a yelp of pain and shook the thought from his head. If he did that, they could get too close and try to take him out or take some of his blood so that they could try and figure out what made him tick. Though, worrying about that last one was probably a lost cause; he'd left more than enough blood for their tests all over his room. What had happened had happened, Peter decided. All that was left for him to do was to stay out of their sights and hope the heat died down. _Yeah, right, _he thought bitterly.

The sound of crunching snow made his head whip upward. Gwen stood a few feet away with his huge duffle slung over her shoulder. When she saw him slumped against the tree half buried in snow she ran over to him and threw her hands around his neck.

"Peter, oh my god, you look awful!" She pulled back and saw the pained expression on his face. Her hand connected with his face before he even saw her raise it. He looked at her, stunned, as she yelled, "You idiot! You got yourself hurt again!"

He relaxed and smiled wearily at her. "Just some bum with a knife," he shrugged. "No big deal."

"No big-!" She hit him again but this time he just chuckled.

"Did you bring the stuff?" he asked through his laughter, clutching his injured side. Gwen glared at him but picked up the bag and opened it. Inside were several pairs of his warm clothes, a sleeping bag and a few days' worth of food. Peter had sent Gwen to his house to fetch the clothes under the guise of gathering Peter's clothes for his sleepover at a friend's and told her to take the money in his wallet to buy some food. He thanked her and pulled on the thick winter parker, instantly feeling better in the shelter of the down feathers. Gwen was frowning at him again but he could barely bring himself to notice. He heaved himself to his feet and she wrapped her arms around him again.

"When can you come home?" she asked, fear ladening her usually light cheerful tones. Peter didn't say anything. He didn't know. What was the point of false assurances? Hadn't she had enough of those from her father? She pulled back from him and looked him in the eye. Hers were filled with tears. "Make it soon, okay?" Peter dipped his head in a half nod, an unsure affirmation. She quickly pressed her lips to his before turning and disappearing into the snowfall. Peter watched her until she was out of sight and then turned to head off.

An indignant yowl pulled his eyes down. Kit stood in the snow, his fur dotted with white like the day he'd found him. He stared up at Peter with a look that said '_You, human, why am I down here in the cold? Do something useful!' _The thought almost made Peter smile but he was much too cold and exhausted for that.

"There you are," he said. "I thought you'd gone off again." Kit had somehow managed to find Peter wherever he went since they found him and he had decided to just stop questioning it because he was thankful for the company. Kit had a habit of disappearing for hours or days at a time but so did Peter so he couldn't really fault the feline. Kit scoffed again and swiped at Peter's leg, demanding to be lifted from the snow. Peter smiled and did as (rudely) requested, lifting the cat over his head and placing him in the hood of the newly donned parker. "It's warmer in there," Peter said by way of explanation at the surprised meow from near his ear. Peter shook his head when he realised he was explaining himself to a cat and started walking.

He had to find somewhere to settle for the night before the snow picked up.

**~AVENGERS~**

The Great Hall of Asgard was filled to bursting again but this time the reason was of a more morbid nature. The crowds sat and drank but no laughter was to be found today. Wine filled cups and tears filled eyes as all stared at the table in the centre of the room that held on it the still form of Balder Odinson. Sadness radiated from every god but none was more distraught than Frigga who sat at the side of her son weeping openly on his stiffening hand for his loss. She cursed herself for her ignorance, screamed out against her son for paining her. The mistletoe, a fragile and brittle plant, could not be used for anything to see her son harm and so had escaped her attentions while she gathered her promises. Such a simple mistake and this is the payment for her blunders.

"It is too much," she wept. "The price is too great." The All Father wrapped his hand around his wife's shaking arm in comfort.

"It is a greater price than any mother should be asked to pay but still it must be paid." It was not so much a comfort as it was salt to the wounds. Thor frowned at his father's back from his chair by the wall. He only did his duty, upholding the laws and making examples of those who had failed him. At this moment, his wife was the one who had failed. Their relationship made it doubly important that she receive punishment for her failure for if a king cannot control his own family then how can he be expected to control a kingdom? The betrayal of Loki was still too fresh in the peoples' minds for him to go easy on Frigga though it still hurt Thor to see his mother treated so severely.

A tutting sound drew the attention of the room to the far corner. "Father, that was a bit harsh, was it not?" Loki stood leaning against a pillar with his arms crossed across his chest and an evil smirk splitting his childlike face. "Where is your sympathy for our poor lost Balder?"

"You are not wanted here, murderer!" Thor shouted, springing to his feet, snatching Mjolnir from its place by his side.

"Why, dear brother, you don't look very pleased to see me." The trickster sounded almost disappointed and then that grin was back three fold. "I'm sure Jane would be more courteous…" It took all of Thor's strength (and a restraining hand from his father) not to throw himself across the room and beat his brother within an inch of his life.

"Why are you here, Laufeyson?" Odin boomed across the hall. Loki looked genuinely hurt for a moment, raising a hand to his chest dramatically.

"You wound me, father. I thought I was Odinson." Loki sounded upset, he looked it, but Thor couldn't believe it. The last time he had seen him, Loki literally screamed that Thor was not his brother. He believed himself to be apart from the family that raised him, that cared for him. Loki would not be upset by being called Laufeyson.

"None who kills their own blood has the right to call himself my son." Odin's voice shook lightly, a slight wetness forming in his eye. All the remaining gods sat and watched the scene unfold before them, eyes roaming between the broken family and the obviously deranged Frost Giant. Thor hated the looks on their faces, like they were waiting for some sort of performance.

"Well, that is unfortunate…" Loki strolled forward to the edge of the horseshoe of tables, turning his head on its side and rolling his eyes to Thor. "…because I would never approach my _brother's_ woman." The words held malice and Loki's eyes shone with murderous mischief. Thor went rigid at the threat.

"You dare touch her-!" he snarled only to be silenced by his father. Odin stood straight-backed, an unmistakable gleam of sadness and resignation in his eye. Thor wondered what his father was seeing that he did not.

"Loki, I bid you leave before you do something which we cannot forgive," Odin warned, posture stiff and face stony.

"He has already done it!" Frigga shouted, jumping to her feet, jabbing an accusing finger at the trickster. "He has killed my child! Our child…" She turned to Odin. "Please… don't let him get away with this!" she sobbed weakly.

"But, mother," Loki smiled. "I already have." He ripped the sheet from Balder's body, displaying the ragged hole in his chest and blood-stained clothes that adorned his form. The crowd around them gasped. Frigga screamed and collapsed to her knees as if physically pained by the sight. She sobbed and clutched herself as Loki laughed, kicking over one of the tables, startling the gods that sat about it. Thor would take no more of this. He threw his hammer with a cry, putting his whole body into the motion. The trickster laughed and the hammer passed right threw him as he disappeared from the chamber. Mjolnir crashed through the wall at the end of the hall and disappeared out the other side. The occupants of the chamber fell silent save the sobbing Frigga and Thor's angry, ragged breathing. Odin laid a hand gently on his son's shoulder once more.

"We must speak."

**~AVENGERS~**

Clint sat in the control room alone. It was a little past three in the morning and even the science geniuses had turned in by now but you know what they say about early birds and worms. The room was dark save for the glow of the monitors from which Clint couldn't tear his eyes. He'd been in here every day since the night they'd lost Peter. He couldn't help it. He watched the same fifteen minutes of footage again and again, the footage of Peter before he dived for the window. He looked trapped, frightened. Barton knew that look. It was the same look he'd had when Fury cornered him in a house surrounded by the bodies of the men he'd just shot dead in revenge. It was a fear of being caught but knowing that you had nowhere else to go, that where you were standing was what you had and it was about to be taken from you. He never wanted the kid to feel that way. It just wasn't right.

Peter reminded Clint so much of himself that it scared him; lost and afraid and, because of them, driven from his home.

Barton's resolve hardened as he stared at the picture of Peter standing, bleeding, in his own disguise. He didn't want Peter to have to hide and to have no one like he did_. And_, he decided, _I can't just sit here while he's wandering around bleeding to death. _He hauled himself out of his chair and spun around. He froze before he moved more than an inch toward the door.

"Looks like you've been keeping secrets, Barton."

**A/N: And there you have chapter 5! Thank you to those people who kept reviewing and favoriting and following while I was away. I really appreciate it. And a special thank you to those people who've stuck around despite my terribly irregular uploads and frequent absences! I love all you guys and thanks for the support!**

**See you later!**


	7. Chapter 6: Cops and Robbers and Super

**A/N:**** Hi guys! So, this is the new chapter that I rushed through without really editting at all so have fun with all my mistakes. Just so you know, I changed the backstory of a lot of the characters to fit with everything I want to happen. If it doesn't make sense, sorry.**

**Ragnarok**

**Chapter 6: Cops and Robbers and Superheroes**

"Steve, wait! Don't go!" Kathy ran out of the back room of the office after the super soldier turned waiter. The captain's back was stiff and ridged as he turned to face her. His expression was grim.

"Why not? That's exactly what you want, isn't it? For me to leave?" Steve's voice was dead and every word cut into Kathy like a knife.

"I want you to go back. But that's not what you're doing! You're running away again!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do? Go back and tell Stark that it's my fault that…" Steve's voice broke, his posture faltered as water filled his eyes. He turned away, shoulders squared. "I can't do that, Kathy. I just can't."

"Steve." Kathy tried her best to make her voice understanding as she laid a comforting hand on his arm. "You'll have to go back eventually. They need you. In case you haven't noticed, tactics isn't exactly their strong suit. Stark's likely to fly in with a half-assed plan and get himself killed." Steve gave a light chuckle, knowing how true that was. _Like father like son, _he thought. "Besides, he probably already knows." Steve went ridged again, turning white-faced to Kathy. "Steve, these are the Stark's we're talking about. They know everything about everyone." The captain gave a reluctant sigh.

"You're right. Of course you are. But that doesn't make it any easier. Every time I look at him all I can think about is how it's my fault. It's _all _my fault…"

"_No it isn't!_" Kathy exploded. "The report said technical error, that's what you told me."

"But he was there because of _me_!"

"And _you_ were there because of _him_! So whose fault is it?" Steve's eyes dropped to the floor, his bag hanging loosely from his fingers. Kathy reached out and took it from him. "You can't keep running from this. You have a responsibility."

"To who?" he scoffed.

"To Tony."

**~AVENGERS~**

Peter was already swinging through the streets on his way to the robbery when the cops finally picked up their game and got new of stick up. His side throbbed every time he threw himself from one building to the next but he didn't have time to complain. It was only a small job; a couple of armed thugs in a jewellery store. _I've handled bigger, _he thought. An image of the Lizard sprang unbidden to his mind. The scars across his torso tingled. _Much bigger. _

Peter dropped to the sidewalk outside the jewellers and, in one fluid motion, threw himself through the front window, rolling and coming to a stop in his signature crouch.

"Hi boys," he mocked. "Little early for Christmas shopping, isn't it?" In seconds Spiderman had the scene surveyed; two men with semi-automatics cleaning out the cases and a third with a handgun keeping the three hostages and the shopkeeper on the ground.

Thing 1 yelled, "Aw, shit man! It's Spiderman!"

Peter clapped a hand over his mask-clad lips. "You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Thing 2 raised his gun to fire. "Ah, ah, ah," Peter tutted, flicking his wrist. His web wrapped around the barrel of the semi-automatic, ripping it from the robber's hand. "You shouldn't play with guns, you know." Peter jumped from his spot and summersaulted in the air to land perfectly on the handgun wielding thief. The man lost his balance and tumbled forward. The gun went off as he hit the ground, shattering one of the cases by the other robbers, startling Thing 1 into dropping his gun. Peter jumped up from the fallen robber, hurriedly webbing his hands and feet to the floor. He whipped back around to the other two.

Peter's eyes widened invisibly under his mask. Thing 2 held the shopkeeper by the throat, a piece of jagged glass from the display case held against his jugular. The jeweller wept in terror and the robber, his eyes visible through the ski mask he wore, looked a strange mixture of crazed, terrified and determined.

"Come any closer and I'll slit his throat!"

Peter held his hands up in acquiescence. "Why don't you just put the guy down. He's got nothing to do with this."

"He's got _everything _to do with this!" The robber backed up a few feet toward the rear door. "He's my ticket out of here."

"Jack, what about me?!" Thing 1 was still back against the other wall, hands up, eyes frightened.

"Shut up, Redd!" Jack backed up further.

"Now, why don't we all just calm down and-" Peter snapped his wrist forward, web shooting out. Before Jack could react, the hand holding the knife was webbed to the wall by his head. He dropped the shopkeeper in surprise. Peter flicked his wrist a half-dozen times more and Jack couldn't move even if he wanted to. The thief was shouting profanities at him as he turned around-

-to see Redd holding his retrieved gun and running for the door. Peter was about to sprint after him when the whoosh of an arrow out the door halted him. Peter sighed when he heard the projectile explode and the cry of the escaping robber. He stuck his head through the shattered window to see Redd trapped under a net that was pegged to the ground. Behind him he heard the light touch of a skilled assassin landing on the pavement followed by the not-so-light clunk of gold-titanium alloy boots.

"What are you doing here?" Peter spat as he walked back inside to help the newly released hostages to their feet. One of them ran from him but the other two thanked him and shook his hand before running outside to the arriving police.

Peter snapped ramrod straight. _Damn it! Police! _He had to get away. They would arrest him. Peter started toward the back door Jack was heading to before.

"Relax, Spidey. Romanov's outside making sure they don't come in till we're done talking," Stark smirked. Peter scowled under his mask. He wished Stark would just leave him alone.

"Look, kid. You don't have to run from us." Peter scoffed at Hawkeyes reassurances. "You don't even have to join the Avengers." Peter noticed the look Stark shot Barton. Clearly there's a disagreement on that front. "All we want is to make sure you don't get yourself or other people hurt."

"You mean you wanna stick a collar around my neck and keep me from doing my job!"

"No way, bug boy." Peter's eyes narrowed. "We just want to make sure there aren't any more incidents like Oscorp Tower."

"And how do you propose you do that?" Peter asked through gritted teeth. Whatever these guys were selling, he wasn't buying it. Barton shifted and tightened his grip on his bow. He knew Peter wasn't liking this conversation.

"We wanna train you, help you. You know, we scratch your back, you scratch ours sort of deal," Stark proposed, gesturing vaguely with a red and gold clad hand.

"Listen here, bucket head," Peter spat, jabbing a finger at Iron Man. Stark stepped back in surprise. "I'm the only one who's helping the people in this town, this city, and I'm not abandoning them just because the big six are afraid they can't control some kid in a mask. So, stay away from me and let me do my job!" Peter jumped to the roof, putting his fist through the skylight.

"You don't understand!" Barton shouted.

Peter looked back down at the assassin. His face was filed with concern. And anger. "Oh, I understand perfectly." Spiderman scuttled out the shattered skylight, leaving the Avengers to deal with the criminals.

**~AVENGERS~**

Back at Stark Tower, Tony was walking the length of the conference table over and over while the other members sat and watched. Again. By now the Avengers were more than aware that Tony was a master brooder. He was always brooding about something; Cap being gone, not having found Spiderman, Pepper taking his suit away so he would sleep or eat, his general hatred of everything that didn't go his way. The list was ever growing.

But something the team wasn't used to was Clint being the same way. Usually he was making jabs at Stark's poor mood but today he sat and shared in the darkening atmosphere. Natasha could have sworn she would be able to stick a card between the wrinkles in his brow. Something was bothering the assassin more than his partner had ever seen. He hadn't been this closed off since they'd met some twenty-one years ago. Clint had only been young, maybe twelve when Fury brought him in. Natasha remembered she was in the firing range practicing with the glock 17 she'd been given for her birthday.

Fury led him into the room with a firm hand at his back and one look at the boy had told her everything she needed to know. He was small for his age and his clothes, dirty and ragged, swam on him. His tattered baseball shirt still had bloodstains on it. He stared ahead without seeing, his grey eyes glazed. Only one word came to mind when she thought of it now.

Dead.

They had been assigned as partners and Fury had brought him to train. Natasha had given him a fierce and sceptical look, told him she would start right away and herded him out of the room. The instant Fury left Clint's legs gave out. He collapsed to the floor and sobbed bitterly. He was inconsolable. Natasha looked at him. She saw the tears and the clothes and the thin arms and legs and suddenly she was overcome with pity because then she saw it. He was there because of the same reason she was; because they were broken.

She drew herself up next to him until she towered over the cowering figure. Her face hardened as she lifted her arm up above her head. It came down with a whack, almost knocking Clint over. He looked up at her through his teary eyes, a hand held to his reddening cheek. Natasha put her hands to her hips as she looked down at him and, in a voice ringing with metal, she said "Men don't cry." He stared at her for a moment, eyes flicking over her features. He must have found what he was looking for because his face closed, the sorrow left his eyes and the pain left his face. Then they started training.

They'd been together ever since then. It had taken a while for her to get him to open up again, he didn't say anything other and 'yes' and 'no' for almost five months since they brought him and it took him over four years to lean to smile again. But he'd been happy since then, he'd found purpose. It didn't make sense for him to be this way again. He was helping people. He'd told her that was his purpose.

She wondered again what had happened to make him turn back into this brooding, lost person that sat across from her. There was something there, something she was missing.

"Okay, so…" Stark's voice cut through her riviere and pulled the attention of everyone in the room. Save Barton. "He thinks we're not doing anything to help the city."

"Which is true," Bruce added from his position near the head of the table. "We mainly take on bigger issues. Peter's tackling robbers and thugs. He's made more arrests in the last month than NYPD has in the last year. Spiderman has taken 'stand up for the little man' to a whole new level."

"So, if we prove him wrong maybe he'll join us! Save a few kittens, fight a few fires. How hard could it be?"

"Parker's not an idiot, tin head." Natasha almost jumped out of her skin when Clint spoke. She'd started thinking of him as that quiet little boy again. "Don't you think he'll realise you're just trying to play him?"

"Clint's right, Stark," Natasha nodded. "Got any other ideas?"

"What am I, a tactician?" Poor choice of words. The conference room fell into heavy silence, all eyes at the empty chair next to Bruce. They really needed their captain back.

"Sir," Jarvis' voice called through the intercom, breaking the silent sorrow of the room's inhabitants. "There is an urgent matter that requires your attention."

"Not now, Jarvis." Stark squeezed the bridge of his nose and waved away the invisible assistant.

"Sir, I don't believe this matter should be ignored," he persisted.

Stark threw his head back and let out a world-weary sigh. "What?"

In front of the conference table a screen appeared and on its face was a tornado pulling down toward the ground, lightning flashing around its edges and getting lower and lower to the ground.

"The Bifrost is open, sir."

**~AVENGERS~**

New York stretched down below over hundreds of square miles, millions of people ambling about along their roads doing nothing with their lives. Buildings lay in ruins, homeless walked the street, purse snatchers and muggers corner women in dark alleyways, Godzilla attacks a science company, aliens fall out of the sky…

"Ah, home sweet home," Wade smiled from his position on the roof of an apartment building. It'd been a long time since he'd been back in New York, almost 3 months. Wow, it seemed so much longer. He'd missed the smell of the sewerage and the exhaust fumes and the greasy street stand food.

_Yeesh, this place is a dump…_

"Aw, don't say that. Can't you just feel the homecoming party!"

_No, I think that's the dog on your ankle._

Wade looked down at the little runt. He pulled himself to his feet, the pit bull still growling and biting into his skin. He turned his back to the edge and bent down, reaching between his legs and grabbing the dog around the middle. "321! 321! Hut! Hut! Hike!" He threw the dog backward over the edge of the building, its teeth ripping out a portion of his ankle along the way. He heard a scream when the dog crashed into a lady reading some crappy romance on the bench below. Wade flinched. "Oooh, that's gunna leave a mark."

_Why are we here, anyway?_

"'Cause I wanted to see how the old hunting grounds were doing."

_Hunting grounds? The only thing you used to hunt was Petey's homework, you idiot._

"Oh, Peter! I missed Peter. Let's go see Peter!"

_He won't even recognise you, moron! Do I have to do all the thinking around here?_

"Well, you are my brain."

_Fair call. But what makes you think he's even gunna talk to you? You're Deadpool now, not Wade Wilson. _

"But Petey always had a habit of getting into trouble. I just wanna check up on him! Come on, please? I'll buy us candy!

_Yes! Wait, no. I don't even like candy!_

"Aww, but-!" Wade's sentence was cut off by the clap of thunder. He turned to side, looking out at the vortex of clouds lowering itself to the earth, swirling up the falling snow. Wade stared at it until it clicked in his mind. It was coming down next to Midtown Science. "Peter…"

For once the two half's of Wade's personality agreed on something.

"_We're going."_

**A/N:**** Thanks for reading guys and please tell me where all the mistakes are so I can fix them and not feel like an idiot. Thanks again guys. I'll try and update again soon.**


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